SONG REVIEW

26,Dec 2015

SONG REVIEW by Dami Ajayi

With the gleam of winning last year’s MTN Project Fame still fresh on his skin, 19-year-old vocal powerhouse Jeff Akoh reminds us that there is more from where that came from with his hot new single, Never Let You Go.

Yes, you guessed right. It is a crooner type love song wooing a love interest replete with a subtle whistling mid-tempo beat produced by the ace song-writer and producer, Oscar Heman-Ackah.

The Cape Town trained sound engineer lends his vocal cords to a powerful rendition of this song and is only let down slightly by the predictability of the song lyrics. All the same, his interpretation is spot-on as he attempts to sing his way into Nigeria’s R & B cannon that can boast of Paul Play’s tessitura falsetto, Wande Coal’s tenor, Timi Dakolo’s ad libs and Iyanya’s angellic voice.

In a sense, Never Let You Go invokes a feeling of déjà vu. It is almost unmistakable and almost impossible, to not think about that breakthrough moment of Iyanya. Fresh out of Project Fame, he released his then hot single, Love Truly, which was an alternative music triumph but was commercially snubbed.With time on his side and the growing popularity of alternative music in Nigeria, Jeff Akoh falls on a better soil. This song is required listening and you wont have to wait long till the repeat button suggests itself.